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Monday, May 22, 2017

Naming Characters and My Obsession with Birds

The main character inDead Boy is a boy
named Crow. One of the main characters inMonster, Human, Other is a girl
named Wren. Can you tell I like birds?

I'll be the first to admit that Crow's name is perhaps too
fitting. A (more or less) dead boy beloved by his parents named Crow
Darlingson? Yep. I like the name Crow. The birds are sometimes associated with
death, but they're also intelligent and charming—just like Crow.

Of course, there is an obvious problem with naming a character after
characteristics developed long after birth. Crow's parents did not know that he
would become undead. They could have hoped he'd be clever, though, and
sometimes people do end up fitting their names in curiously apt ways. Wikipedia
has an article on this phenomenon, calledaptronyms. The article gives many
examples, including Michael Ball, a football player, and Amy Freeze, a
meteorologist. I wouldn't want to name all my characters this way, but I'm
happy with Crow's name.

More often, names will reflect the parents' personalities. Are the parents
conventional? Give the character a conventional name. Are the parents more out
there? Come up with a unique name. Do the parents love to travel? Maybe
something like Paris, London or Sahara will work nicely.

Names can also reflect the culture of the character, whether it's a real-world
culture or a fantasy one. Wren's name fits the naming conventions of the
non-human family that's raising her.

The age of the character is important, too. When I'm coming up with names, I
often consult lists of baby names, like the ones from theSocial
Security Administration. The trick is not to use the current year's most
popular names. Instead, figureout
when your character was born, and use a name from that year's list.